1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an image processing system and more particularly to a method of and system for quantitatively analyzing input image(s) of an object given as an input image and in particular ultrasonic video image(s). The quantitative analysis includes the 2-D and 3-D contour extraction of the object, the calculation of the area enclosed by the 2-D contour at a slice position in the object and the calculation of volume of the body.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Japanese unexamined patent publication Hei10-99,328 (1998) discloses a ultrasonic diagnostic system for accurately recognizing and automatically obtaining the time period of the contraction last period and expansion last period of the heart.
Japanese unexamined patent publication Hei8-299,341 (1996) discloses an ultrasonic volume calculation device. Only voxels (volume cells) having link to the reference voxel out of voxels whose binary processing results are value to be extracted are separated and extracted by executing link determination operation for the binary processing results of the respective voxels so as to be set as a target region. The volume is calculated by counting the voxels in the target region.
However, conventional contour extracting system searches a wide area for contour points without limiting the search area by using information on shapes of the contour of a target organ. This may cause wrong position to be counted as true contour points due to noise or unclearness of the echo image.
It is an object of the invention to provide a method of and a system for extracting a contour of an object given as an input image and/or calculating the area or volume enclosed by the contour with a high precision, through reduced manual operation.